Celeb chef Curtis Stone on the tough (but adorable) critic who spits out his food

Chef Curtis Stone at the beach with his 1-year-old son, Hudson, who recently celebrated his birthday.

Australian chef Curtis Stone has cooked in restaurants and on television for nearly two decades, but these days one of his toughest critics is his 1-year-old son, Hudson.

“He’s the first person who has ever just spat my food out,” Stone, 36, told TODAY.com. “He usually spits it out if it’s hot, so you realize how important temperature is. Or if it’s anything too new.”

Despite being a fussy eater on occasion, Stone said on TODAY that his son actually “does like my cooking most of the time.” On the other hand, getting him to eat unsweetened, natural yogurt has been a bit of a struggle.

“I’m trying to get him used to the flavor of natural yogurt, so every time I give it to him he’s like ‘paaa!’ and shakes his head,” Stone said.

But we may still have a future gourmand in Hudson, who has an adventurous palette, according to dad. Depending on the time of year, Stone purees “all sorts of stuff” from his own vegetable garden and adds proteins like lentils, ground beef and ground turkey to his all-natural mixtures.

“Obviously nothing too spicy yet,” he said.

And even the celebrity chef is learning a little something from his foray into the world of baby food.

“It’s interesting, even as a chef, that you get to taste all these things in their purest form, like carrot puree. It’s like, wow, carrots are really sweet,” he said. “It’s been a nice experience.”